THE TRADITION
1.
Jonathan Trisk has just had a thought. Not a very original thought, but a thought. He is sitting in the midst of four tables of bridge and has just opened six no trump. But the thought is not about bridge. “I am,” his thought ran, “fortunate to be alive at this moment.” No, not an original thought at all, and it has nothing to do with his having a hand capable of being opened at six no trump. Jenna has just told him that Lissel wants to go to bed with him. She has some kind of “thing” about Vietnam veterans. Well, those veterans who managed to see the light and oppose the war. Jonathan Trisk is that kind of veteran. His partner passes. Odd, he thinks, after she lays her hand down, that she should pass when she has the ace of hearts. Jonathan’s thoughts are, when he has them, often like that. Unable to linger for long, to remain focused on one thing.
Lissel, Jonathan Trisk thinks. What an odd name. He recalls having seen it before, some time ago, when he was even younger than he is now. In a musical comedy. But Lissel is nothing like her. Lissel is in the process of becoming unmarried after having walked in on Ray, her husband, in bed with another man. “He’s gay,” Lissel had told him. And then she had kissed him—Jonathan, not her gay husband. He remembers having felt her belly rubbing against his, her small breasts, fashionably small in their circle, braless, rubbing against his chest. I’m sorry, he had said.
2.
Jonathan is getting married. No, not to Lissel. To Rosie. Rosie is in Los Angeles doing whatever it is that she would be doing to prepare for a modest wedding. Lissel has taken Jonathan out for a bachelor party. “Every man needs a good send off before he gets married,” she said. He drinks scotch and water and then scotch on the rocks and then scotch neat. Lissel orders for him. “This is your night,” she says. Above them a Corona neon sign glows in the dark bar. A fat cowboy sings about a love that went wrong. Lissel suggests that all love goes wrong. “I loved Ray,” she says. Her leg brushes against his.
They are in bed. Not Rosie and Jonathan. Jonathan and Lissel. I can’t go home tonight,” she says. Her husband is there with his boyfriend. She needs a place to spend the night. Just for tonight, she says. In the morning Jonathan will fly to California. He has already rented a tuxedo with a gold cummerbund. He has decided not to drive. That would take three days, he thought. Lissel has undressed and is in bed. He turns off the lights but not before he has seen her, only from the back, getting into his bed.
Perhaps I really love Lissel, he thinks, but then thinks again. But if I love her I would not be marrying Rosie. So I must love Rosie. Still, Lissel feels very warm against him all night. He has trouble sleeping because she bumps against him and one of her arms flops over him and her thigh somehow gets between his legs. He pretends not to notice until she rolls on top of him and kisses him. “It’s an involuntary reaction,” he says. “Because I love Rosie,” he says. “I know that because I’m marrying her.”
Lissel falls asleep on top of him. He thinks that must be uncomfortable. He is very hot. All over. Jonathan does not remember sleeping that night. In the morning he takes Lissel back to her apartment, and she is crying.
3.
Dr. Phillip Haslip teaches English at the university. He receives less than average student evaluations but does not care. Dr. Phillip Haslip has tenure. “Call me Phillip,” he says when he meets Jonathan. “Any friend of Lissel’s and all that.” All what, Jonathan wonders. “This is Rosie, my wife,” he tells Phillip. “Any wife of Jonathan’s,” Phillip says. They laugh, Jonathan uncomfortably. The fluorescent lights flicker.
Phillip is marrying Lissel and has the annoying habit of whistling, “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” whenever he thinks of her. They are having a party at a history professor’s house, a pre-wedding party, not a rehearsal dinner, a party just for close friends. Lissel asks Jonathan to walk with her for a few minutes. When they get to the corner she sits down on the curb and pulls Jonathan down with her. “Kiss me,” she says. “Why?” Jonathan asks. “Because I kissed you before you got married and you’ve already been married for six whole months,” she says. “It’s our tradition.”
Jonathan kisses Lissel. She pulls him back onto the grass and kisses him again. He feels her long brown hair fall around his face and thinks she looks odd silhouetted against the street light. “That was very nice,” Jonathan says and stands up. He thinks traditions are nice and kissing Lissel before weddings has become a nice tradition.
4.
At the beach house, only six months after the wedding, Rosie and Phillip stay inside while Lissel and Jonathan walk out to a cut between the bay and the ocean to catch crabs. “I’ve never caught one,” says Lissel. “It’s easy,” Jonathan says and shows her. He throws a piece of meat tied to a long string into the water. “When a crab tries to carry it away you just pull the string slowly in then scoop the crab into the net.”
Lissel leans over Jonathan’s bare back and he notices that she is no longer wearing her blouse. He can tell because her nipples feel rather hard against his back and her hair feels like wet strings dripping against his shoulders. “They feel good,” he says. “Your breasts, I mean, but,” he says, “it’s cold. You need to be wearing something.” Something tugs impatiently on the line.
When they return to the beach house, much earlier than they had planned, Rosie and Phillip are not there.
5.
Jonathan walks down the aisle. Lissel’s hand is on his arm. He is giving her away since her father refuses to. He wonders about the tradition. “After the wedding this time,” she says.
“Why did you marry Jenna after Rosie divorced you?” she whispers.
“I enjoyed kissing you then,” he says. “It was a wonderful tradition.”
